jwcolby54
Lovin' my Winnie
A week ago I purchased a 2014 Vista 26HE. I love the rig. Buuuuuut.....
Within hours my entry door latch failed, the back of the latch sheared off and the handles would no longer pull the latch backwards to allow the door to open. Luckily I was inside at the time, though my phone was 'locked' in my unlocked truck parked nearby. And I had no tools in the RV yet. A bit of a pickle. I eventually attracted some attention and got my phone and a fillips screwdriver and needle nose, disassembled the latch and escaped the clutches of my Winnie.
I then proceeded to leave the headlights on and ran down the starter battery. Sigh. Jumped it and got the engine to start and recharge the chassis battery. And of course I didn't monitor my house battery closely enough and ran it down. Of course the Gene wouldn't start so I had to start the engine to recharge the house to start the gene to finish recharging the house battery.
Trial by fire I guess!!!
Given all the rookie mistakes I was a bit hesitant to try the leveling jacks and slides, figuring I could cause much bigger problems with those systems. But last night I decided to give them a whirl. The jacks leveled the coach just fine (haven't yet tried to retract them) and the slide worked (haven't yet tried to retract it yet.
So can I control how high the jacks raise the RV? The front tires are entirely off the ground which allows the wind to push the RV around. I found a thread about using leveling blocks first to help with this? Do I drive the front tires up on the blocks so that after leveling the tires are still somewhat resting on those blocks?
In spite of my trials and tribulations, it has been fun "camping" with my daughter in my new-to-us RV. I have to say though that the cold weather is fixing to blow a hole in my camping budget. It is 20 degrees outside right now.
Within hours my entry door latch failed, the back of the latch sheared off and the handles would no longer pull the latch backwards to allow the door to open. Luckily I was inside at the time, though my phone was 'locked' in my unlocked truck parked nearby. And I had no tools in the RV yet. A bit of a pickle. I eventually attracted some attention and got my phone and a fillips screwdriver and needle nose, disassembled the latch and escaped the clutches of my Winnie.
I then proceeded to leave the headlights on and ran down the starter battery. Sigh. Jumped it and got the engine to start and recharge the chassis battery. And of course I didn't monitor my house battery closely enough and ran it down. Of course the Gene wouldn't start so I had to start the engine to recharge the house to start the gene to finish recharging the house battery.
Trial by fire I guess!!!
Given all the rookie mistakes I was a bit hesitant to try the leveling jacks and slides, figuring I could cause much bigger problems with those systems. But last night I decided to give them a whirl. The jacks leveled the coach just fine (haven't yet tried to retract them) and the slide worked (haven't yet tried to retract it yet.
So can I control how high the jacks raise the RV? The front tires are entirely off the ground which allows the wind to push the RV around. I found a thread about using leveling blocks first to help with this? Do I drive the front tires up on the blocks so that after leveling the tires are still somewhat resting on those blocks?
In spite of my trials and tribulations, it has been fun "camping" with my daughter in my new-to-us RV. I have to say though that the cold weather is fixing to blow a hole in my camping budget. It is 20 degrees outside right now.